Ngugi's Literary Fame Deserved

First appeared on the Saturday Nation of 9^th November 2013, page 32 entitled; “Ngugi wa Thiongo’s Fame Well Deserved”

Ngugi is a celebrity in Kenya due to his literary works and experience. It takes a lot of devotion for one to write a whole novel for the public. Ngugi’s Devil on the Cross is dedicated to “all Kenyans fighting against the final stages of neocolonialism.” I completely disagree with Clement Omondi’s remarks on Saturday 21/9/2013 that Ngugi wa Thiong’o does not deserve his fame and his works “read like funeral announcements with nothing to keep the reader glued”.

In Decolonising the Mind, he confirms his care for and solidarity with the common man. On page 72, he questions; “I knew whom I was writing about, but who was I writing for?” Therefore, he switched from English to African languages for the people to understand his writings. Ngugi deals with human oppression and revolution in colonial and neocolonial Kenya. He appeals for Kenyan unity, something I think should guarantee him this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature. He even campaigned for the people’s rights through theatre when, with Ngugi wa Mirii, he penned in Gikuyu the play, Ngahiika Ndenda – I will Marry When I Want – which the people occasionally acted at Kamiriithu Community Education and Cultural Centre in Limuru. The play faced stiff opposition from the Moi government due to its exposure of mistreatment of the poor by the rich. Although residing in the USA, Ngugi wa Thiong’o still writes in Gikuyu.

Ngugi’s works are attractive to the reader due to their high degree of creativity, well-used biblical allusion, tradition and culture, African forms of literature, satire and humour, vivid description, flashbacks, good character development, a mixture of regular and irregular plots etc. 

Omondi’s claim that Ngugi’s Weep Not Child is a copy of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is also misplaced. A son imitates his father in cementing the house’s prosperity. Ngugi simply followed Achebe’s fatherly lead in projecting the African continent through the pen. African division under European colonialists was naturally what linked Ngugi with Achebe, then an unavoidable theme, even today. Furthermore, just like Achebe, Ngugi colonised European literature by incorporating western essentials (like Marxism) in his works to tell of the African situation in the African way. Before judging Ngugi’s literary expertise and fame, it’s wise to exclusively and meditatively read all his works and biography in relation to the development of the Kenyan society.

© Peter Ngila, 2013